L.A. to Boston - May 10 to June 28 - 3415 Miles

Friday, May 23, 2008

Day 14 - Friday May 23 - Albuquerque, NM to Sante Fe, NM - 66 mi - 5400 ft climbling

Today was cold and wet. After yesterday's experience, I wore extra clothes. At the 22 mile point of mostly climbing out of Albuquerque, we stopped to get warmed up.




Hot chocolate sure hit the spot.


The rain let up a little and some of us headed out again. Not far down the road was the former mining town of Madrid. Similar in nature to Jerome, AZ, Madrid is now an artsy community. It had very unique shops.


Residential acreages also had very unique displays of sculptures.


There were very contemporary homes and buildings.


This roadside rock formation was very interesting.


The last ten miles into Santa Fe was a downpour. As long as I kept moving, I stayed relatively warm, however, I was soaked. I had plenty of cold rain throughout the day. As we were spread out over many miles, others had more or less rain. Many were sagged in. I feel that today was a major accomplishment after yesterday. A tailwind saved the day. If we had had a headwind, the day would have been a total disaster in the cold rain. We learned that the whole southwest U.S is abnormally cool with Phoenix having the third coldest day on record. There is new snow on the mountains surrounding Santa Fe. Some riders experienced some sleet and snow today.


My bathtub after I had washed myself and my clothes.


My bike got a bath also. The touring company sets up a wash station each day for those who want to clean their bikes. Today, a cleanup was a must before taking the bikes into our rooms.


A visit to a local Santa Fe bike shop. The guys are CrossRoads Tour staff Rick, Zack, and Pat. Rick and Pat are bike mechanics and Zack drives the truck that hauls our luggage. The women think Zack is very cute.

Tomorrow we will stay in Santa Fe for our 2nd rest day. Sunday, we will ride to Las Vegas, NM.

Thanks for the comments,

Bob